"When I had finished the book, I said to myself: This is the truth," she wrote. On January 1, 1922, at age 31, Edith Stein was baptized. She spent a great deal of time at remote Beuron Abbey, studying under the tutelage of the Benedictine Abbot there. Later, she was confirmed by the Bishop of Speyer in his private chapel and for almost ten years afterwards she taught German and history at the Dominican Sisters' college in Speyer. In 1932, she lectured under Catholic auspices at the University of Munster.
Though she wanted to join a Carmelite convent, the Bishop dissuaded her. "During the time immediately before and quite some time after my conversion I ... thought that leading a religious life meant giving up all earthly things and having one's mind fixed on divine things only. Gradually, however, I learned that other things are expected of us in this world... I even believe that the deeper someone is drawn to God, the more he has to `get beyond himself' in this sense, that is, go into the world and carry divine life into it."
Stein was a prolific translator and writer. She translated the letters and diaries of Cardinal Newman from his pre-Catholic period as well as the Quaestiones Disputatae de Veritate of St Thomas Aquinas. She wrote Potency and Act, a study of the central concepts developed by Aquinas.
In 1933, Hitler came to power. The Nazis made it impossible for Edith to continue teaching. "I had heard of severe measures against Jews before. But now it dawned on me that God had laid his hand heavily on His people, and that the destiny of these people would also be mine," she wrote. "If I can't go on here, then there are no longer any opportunities for me in Germany. I had become a stranger in the world."
Entering Carmel
She resolved to enter the Carmelite Convent in Cologne. In 1938 Edith Stein, now known as Sister Teresa, Blessed of the Cross wrote: "I understood the cross as the destiny of God's people, which was beginning to be apparent at the time (1933). I felt that those who understood the Cross of Christ should take it upon themselves on everybody's behalf. Of course, I know better now what it means to be wedded to the Lord in the sign of the cross. However, one can never comprehend it, because it is a mystery."
"Those who join the Carmelite Order are not lost to their near and dear ones, but have been won for them, because it is our vocation to intercede to God for everyone," she wrote on October 31, 1938. "I keep thinking of Queen Esther who was taken away from her people precisely because God wanted her to plead with the king on behalf of her nation. I am a very poor and powerless little Esther, but the King who has chosen me is infinitely great and merciful. This is great comfort."
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